CRAIG (Edward Gordon).
Silhouette of Mr. Tree as Count d'Orsay.
The much older Tree, probably the most powerful man in London’s theatre world in the fin-de-siecle, was well disposed to Craig, partly by affection for his parents Ellen Terry and Edward Godwin, and partly by recognition of Craig’s own genius. They only collaborated once, when in 1908 Craig designed a production of Macbeth at His Majesty’s Theatre: Edward Craig in his life of his father gives a convincing account of how this was partly sabotaged by Joseph Harker, the head scene painter at the theatre, who saw “a threat to the future of scene-painting in Craig’s three-dimensional scenes ‘painted with light’”. The production did take place in 1911, by which time they had fallen out badly to the extent that Craig (with great bad grace) sued Tree over damage to his models. Tree played the great dandy Count d’Orsay in Clyde Fitch’s The Last of the Dandies at His Majesty’s Theatre in 1901 and 1904, the latter production also marking Claude Rains’ first speaking part in the theatre. With some old crumpling and staining, well mounted. From the estate of the Canadian author Robertson Davies.
